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Video:Exercising With a Knee Injury

Learn how to properly exercise with a knee energy so that you can build strength in the knee without damaging it further. Here are some great exercises for people with a knee injury.See Transcript

Transcript:Exercising With a Knee Injury

Hi, I'm Steve Petersen, certified personal trainer of Steve Sweat NYC for About.com. In this video, we'll be going over some things that you need to know, and some things that you can do if you intend to work out with an injured knee. First of all, if you're feeling any kind of sharp pain as you're working out, you should stop and consult your doctor. Knee injuries take a long time to heal.

Massage Knees Before Exercising With a Knee Injury

On of the things you can do prior to working out is to massage your knee. Try to stimulate the blood flow in the area. Sometimes you might want to do this for 30-60 seconds, or maybe even longer. It depends on your pain.

Try Knee Lifts When Exercising With a Knee Injury

Next, if you can raise your knee about 5 to 7 inches off the ground, and just gradually extend your knee out, and then pull it back. Depending on your pain level, you can continue this until you feel that you are ready to step up to the next routine that we will go over now.

Use Bands When Exercising With a Knee Injury

For the next stage, we will use the thorough band. I will place this around my ankle. This is done to provide further resistance. Hold the band with the same band as the knee that you're extending, and you pull your knee in, and you pull it out. Repeat this for 3 sets, 10 repetitions in each set.

Ankle Weights Can Help When Exercising With a Knee Injury

Now what we have here is an ankle weight. They vary in weight increments. You can choose the one that suits your pain level best. You can use a chair for support, and use your arm to support your leg, and raise your knee about a foot off the ground. Then extend your knee out, and pull it back in. You can do 3 sets of 10 repetitions. You can increase the weight, or you can increase the repetitions. Or you can decrease the intensity of the exercise. Your level of comfort will indicate the best avenue to take.

Squats Are Good for Exercising With a Knee Injury

Our next routine is a simple squat without any weights. To begin, we're going to pretend as if we're sitting down in a seat. We'll rotate our hips back. We'll go down while making sure our knees do not go past our ankles. We can do 3 sets of this routine, 10 reps at a time. You can also increase the intensity by adding weight, or increasing your sets, or your repetitions.

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